Helen Gleason & Co.
In “The Submarine Attack.” A very good sketch, very well played. In the small houses they could be used as a headline act. 13 minutes F.S.
Rose and Gates
14 Mins; Two (Interior). This team is presenting a “Potash and Perlmutter” sketch. At the opening two partners in the cloak and suit business are shown and the act is patterned after the many spats which the Montague Glass creations have had. The talk is draggy in spots and the men are not yet at ease in their roles. The younger of the two is too prone to screech at the top of his lungs, detracting from the general effect. When the act is whipped into shape it will do for small time.
Florence Lorraine
“Girls Will be Girls” (New Acts) closed the first half and though Florence Lorraine featured, kept the house sitting up with her Swedish servant girl bit, the running time, 20 minutes, could be cut down without doing material harm.
Bradley and Ardine
Bradley and Ardine ran third, a wait to make their setting being dispensed with by running “Topics of the Day” before the act. Several details went wrong Monday afternoon. First Miss Ardine’s Japanese “hat” was balky, the elastic insisting on dropping down over her eyes. A flyman started with the wrong lines later and began lifting the hangings. However, the error was found out quickly enough. Miss Ardine was arrayed in new wardrobe and the finish was big, the act going for the first hit. J. Irving Fisher, the pianist, figured in the score, a regular thing him.
Alexander Carr and Co.
Alexander Carr and Co. in an “April Shower” came in for good returns, but not enough to call for the monolog that Carr stepped out of his character to do in Scotch dialect at the end of his act.
Cunningham and Bennett
Another reminder of home on the bill were Cunningham and Bennett, with their scrappy husband and wife skit in “one.” Every time they are seen they recall many firesides faithfully. Cunningham and Bennett worked hard and to good results, even in the murky atmosphere.
Bertram May and Co.
Bertram May and Co. in a very clever skit, worked hard to put over something that the patrons in the rear row failed to get the drift of. The girl playing the part of the writer was hard to understand and she held the plot in her hands it was impossible for any one to know what or why she was paying $500 to an actor to beat up his wife.
“Lord Chester”
[New Act] Sketch, 15 mins; four (Special Set). “Lord Chester” enters a hotel lobby and beseeches the switchboard and bored siren to get a number for him. She gets Central in her own time. This is cleverly and libbed with some funny business in which a bell hop and the “nance” Lord Chester play the leading roles. The telephone vamp feels a large dinner coming on by grace and through the medium of the “lord Chester,” who, however, refuses to fall. The girls asks Central for Rector and gets first Plaza and then Morningside. A practical clock on the lobby wall reads “July 29, 1926” – the day the act was reviewed – advances thirty years and the three principals in this telephone satire walk out in 1950, bent in form, with the same remark, “Wire still busy.” Audience liked it uproariously. Lifted from last seasons “Hatchy Koo.”
Elsie Williams and Co.
Elsie Williams and Co. followed with a little sketch called “Who Was to Blame?” This was the one spot on the bill that had rust on the runners. The piece is mediocre and had little of personality to bolster its weakness. Miss Williams is good to look upon, but lacks fiber and force, while Aiden MacClaskie, who played the young husband opposite her, failed to convince.
Jack Osterman
Jack Osterman apparently was the “draw,” though Florena Tempest was the headliner. If a reception signifies anything, Osterman was the headliner and the rest of the show “added features.” It is difficult to analyze exactly what power this youngster has over Chicago audiences. There is much talk about his father, J.J. Rosenthal, “making” him. In a measure that is true. But no man could build up any act as Osterman has done here except the man who acts it. J.J. is only one theatre manager. He cannot swing and deliver housefuls of people time after time. And this is not the hometown of the Rosenthals, as many believe; they have lived here scarcely a year. Osterman, however, makes entrances that sound like Harry Lauder, and is dragged back and back again for encores and speeches. Why? The kid “has it” – at least as far as Chicago is concerned.
He showed some new matter in his routine, but it did vary from his familiar act. He sang a song about Chicago and a new musical show he was doing. When he mentioned his mother someone in the balcony called, “Where is she?” and he pointed her out, whereupon the spot was thrown on her and the beauteous Kathryn Osterman took a gracious bow, all flushed with pride and happiness. This may be going beyond the front door any, for it got plenty of applause, and it was not humanly possible that even half of the people in the seats knew Jack Osterman’s family.